Iain Dale rows with Guardian writer who couldn't be friends with a Tory

23 January 2020, 11:04 | Updated: 23 January 2020, 11:06

Can you be friends with someone you disagree with politically? Iain Dale's conversation with Guardian journalist Joseph Harker started off civil... but it didn't end that way.

Rebecca Long-Bailey revealed she has no friends who are Tories and would be angry if any of them told her she had voted for the Conservatives.

Iain may be on the right, but he is good friends with Labour's former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and they present a podcast together for LBC - For The Many.

After discussing the topic with Jacqui, Iain spoke to Mr Harker, who is the Deputy Opinion Editor at The Guardian.

The conversation started off friendly, but soon veered away from that, when Mr Harker said the Windrush scandal was entirely of the Conservatives making and Iain told him: "I'll have a perfectly polite conversation, but if you mislead people and just pretend it was under a Tory government when it was started under a Labour government, then I'm going to take issue with you."

On whether he could be friends with a Tory, the journalist said: "If someone describes themselves as a Tory and fundamentally signs up the the Conservative values, then I'm sorry, I can't be friends."

Iain responded: "I could say the exact same thing about people on the left of politics, about some of the disgusting policies that they support. That wouldn't prevent me from being a friend of somebody.

"You are part of the problem in my view. You close your mind to people who believe in different things to you and therefore you can't be friends with them. I find it inconceivable to think in that way."

And then things started to get even more tense. Watch the clip in full at the top of the page.